1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the display of information on small display screens, and in particular to a method and apparatus for scrolling a zoom window through a list of items on a small screen, and at the same time displaying within the zoom window a pertinent portion of the record from a structured database.
2. Description of Related Art
A structured information database is usually represented by a long list of ordered data or records. More often, it is represented by a list of indexes, pointers, indicators, items or entries, each indexing one of the records. In order to locate a record identified by an index from the database, a string of characters representing a portion or full of the index must be supplied. A lookup process based on the matching scheme is then followed to retrieve all records identified by the string of characters. Furthermore, a scrolling process can be applied at any time to navigate through a list of indexes. It provides user a speed access to a record when its index is displayed on the screen.
As alternatively used herein, an index, a pointer, an indicator, an item or an entry means an indexing representation of a record containing collective information FIG 1A.
Illustrates a display screen 100 with a list of items 102 being displayed. Each of items corresponds to a record. In order to locate a record by a desired index from the database, a cursor 104 must be scrolled to the desired item or index. FIG. 1B shows an exemplary screen in which the desired index is "Bakers, Cash & . . . " 108 being selected by cursor 104. A user has to engage in a mode for displaying the full record of the selected index in order to obtain pertinent information. FIG. 1C shows the full record 110 of the selected index after the user activities a predefined key. The display screen allows the user to view and seek the desired information through all portions of record. After viewing the record, user has to disengage the current display mode and to return back to the previous scrolling display screen FIG. 1B to resume the scrolling process.
This method, commonly seen in some devices, is attempted to enable user to adapt to the information being structured and to review the information in a way that a scrolling process works by navigating through a list of indexes and selectively viewing individual record, which may contain desired information. Obviously, when navigating or scrolling, a user is not able to view the content of record unless temporarily suspending the scrolling process and then engaging in a mode for full record display. The full record display screen contains all portions of information in a record. Quite often only a small portion of the record is pertinent to the user, for example a phone number in an address record. Further, when the user frequently "enters" the full record display screen or "returns" to the scrolling screen, the screen display is changed or refreshed each time the display mode changes, which causes certain degrees of visual disturbance to the screen viewer (user).
For devices, such as cellular phones or two-way pagers, that are equipped with a small screen, the above scrolling method might be practical but neither convenient nor efficient. There is therefore a great need for a generic solution, for devices with small screens, to facilitate a user to navigate through a list of items and to view only a desired portion of a record without causing the visual disturbance to the user.